OPVs are square pegs in round holes - Minister Griffith

December 16, 2014:In response to a newspaper column that sought to promote the notion that the cancellation of the Offshore Patrol Vessels is somehow contributing to our borders being porous, Minister of National Security, Gary Griffith, reiterated that the issue of the OPVs was simply one of the wrong type of unit for our requirements and that there is never a right enough reason to do a wrong thing.

In a media statement released by the National Security Ministry, Minister Griffith compared the OPVs to square pegs for round holes where our needs are concerned.

He stated that while OPVs do serve a purpose in specific situations, our security needs is not one of them.

The statement added, while others who have held this same post in the past have been content to respond to the rising crime situation by throwing any and every gimmick and gadget at it to see what sticks, this Minister of National Security has, over the past fourteen months saw it fit first to identify and establish where in fact the front lines were in this war, and to put measures in place to methodically and surely reclaim ground lost to the criminal element.

Items such as the establishment of a forward boundary line marine wall complete with response capabilities currently under construction, and in the coming months we will be rolling out additional major and complimentary assets to finally close our borders and to provide this nation with the type of total security it always needed to survive in a world where drug trafficking and terrorism are global endeavours.

The Minister reminded that the acquisition of 360 degree radar without being able to act on the information provided by the radar is equivalent to deploying slow moving, high flying aerial blimps in the sky with no assets on the ground to respond. With the coming on stream of the marine wall and in conjunction with the rapid response vessels soon to be deployed, that same radar will now deliver crucial intelligence that will assist in closing our porous borders, a major step forward in our ultimate goal to make Trinidad & Tobago crime free.

The Minister assured the public and again relies of the dramatic successes in this regard over the past fourteen months as evidence to the fact that we are winning the war against crime, and the decreasing crime statistics combined with the enthusiastic support from all across the spectrum and on all sides of the political divide are testimony to these successes.